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Sunday, August 22, 2010

A nail salon reportedly charged a customer $5 more for her manicure because of her weight:

Michelle Fonville tells WSB.TV that the owners of Natural Nails in DeKalb County, Georgia charged her extra for her manicure, claiming that damage to salon chairs had been done by overweight patrons, and that the extra $5 was to cover the potential cost of a replacement chair. "I said, Ma'am, you can't charge me $5 more. That's discrimination because of my weight," Fonville says, noting that Kim Tran, the manager of the salon, brought up the broken chair issue in response: "Do you think that's fair when we take $24 [for manicure and pedicure] and we have to pay $2,500? Is that fair? No."

But the salon was seemingly set up to discriminate to begin with; the chairs they're so concerned over only have a weight capacity of 200 pounds, and claiming that anyone over 200 pounds is responsible for chair damage, after already inviting them to sit on said chairs, is a very shady means of getting an extra five dollars through completing the manicure and then slapping on the extra humiliation charge. If the salon is so concerned about its precious chairs, perhaps it should order some that accommodate all of its customers, instead of blaming the patrons for "breaking" chairs that were not designed to support their weight to begin with.

4 comments:

I can just see their defense at the inevitable liability lawsuit: "Judge, I bought cheap-ass chairs to save money, but that fatty should have sense enough to not patronize my business and sit in them. It's her fault."

"Do you think that's fair when we take $24 [for manicure and pedicure] and we have to pay $2,500? Is that fair? No."

Ummm..yes, that's fair. Because, you know what? Chairs wear out when used as frequently as they are in salons (esp. if you don't buy appropriately strong and durable ones in the first place!). As the business owner, it is your job to budget enough money to replace such goods when they wear out, and if you're not making enough money to cover such costs of maintaining your business, you raise prices across the board- not just scapegoat one class of people.